Ralph Wenzel in 1970 as a guard for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played seven seasons in the NFL. / AP

Written by

ELEANOR M. PERFETTO

My Experience

This week, Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown alleged that the link between concussions and dementia is “merely speculation.”

Such careless remarks from NFL leaders have never shocked or surprised me. It’s in line with their behavior toward retired players.

But I am surprised to read these remarks in 2013. The comments sound like they come from a tobacco industry executive from decades ago.

Once again, I am saddened to be reminded that the richest sports franchise in history remains unwilling to take care of its own and accept responsibility for its past actions.

My husband, Ralph Wenzel, died June 18, 2012, after suffering from dementia for nearly two decades. Ralph was an offensive guard in the NFL for seven seasons.

In 1995, at the age of 52, more than 20 years after his NFL retirement, Ralph experienced depression and short-term memory loss.

Both are symptoms of the degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE, which has been scientifically linked to repetitive head trauma sustained in football.

The disease progressed and, by early 2007, Ralph needed an assisted living facility for dementia care; he could no longer dress, bathe or feed himself.

In December of 2012, I received confirmation from an analysis of Ralph’s brain tissue by the Sports Legacy Institute. Ralph suffered from CTE – one of the worst cases the Institute has seen to date.

For decades, families have seen their loved ones experience memory loss, dementia, irrational behavior, even suicide, as the NFL denied and hid the truth about the role of head injuries in causing brain disease.

The NFL failed to inform players about the science, did not protect the players on the field and intentionally created flawed research to state, as Brown indicated, that head injuries pose no long-term risk.

It was a familiar ploy, ripped from the playbook the tobacco industry used to deceive the public about the risks of cigarette smoking.

Meanwhile, the disrespect exhibited by the league toward players and families was only trumped by its refusal to provide medical benefits and care to those who are suffering.

The NFL’s growing popularity made its owners and executives like Brown indescribably wealthy; yet, men like my husband, who earned a small fraction of what today’s superstars earn, were left to suffer without care or support.

After decades of denial, the NFL has taken only the smallest steps toward acknowledging the scientific evidence that repeated head trauma from playing in the NFL can lead to neurological disease.

The league has announced several donations to the National Institutes of Health to conduct research on this issue.

Yet Commissioner Roger Goodell and other executives like Brown still refuse to admit the connection between NFL football and brain disease.

Seen in that light, the announcements seem more like a simple public relations trick – meant to buy positive headlines rather than helping former players in need who will die before the research is completed.

Like the tobacco industry, the NFL has responded to a health crisis not by stepping up for those harmed, but with a duplicitous campaign to instill doubt in the public.

The league’s now-infamous mild traumatic brain injury committee spent more than a decade publishing false, unscientific research – a brazen attempt to undermine medical consensus about the long-term risks of concussions. Indeed, the very day the NFL announced an NIH grant, a new, government-sponsored study released in the scientific journal Neurology found that former NFL players are four times more likely to die from dementia and ALS than the general U.S. population.

Yet, Brown does not seem to know that this government research exists.

Gaining more scientific knowledge about CTE is important, but the public must not allow the NFL to fool them into believing that small donations for research substitute for action.

As a new season approaches, it is well past time for the NFL and its owners to move beyond creating headlines, to actually caring for the former players and families who have suffered because of the league’s negligence and fraud.

Owners and executives like Brown need to lift their heads out of the sand and stop insulting former players and their families.

After spending decades and millions of dollars to hide the truth about brain injuries, it is time for the league and the teams to take real action that demonstrates true leadership and responsibility. ■

Eleanor M. Perfetto is among the retired NFL players and family members who are plaintiffs in the NFL concussion litigation. She lives in Annapolis, Md., and is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.